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| FILE PHOTO: Germany to return looted Benin bronzes from 2022. Photo credit: DW |
British troops looted thousands of artworks known as the
Benin Bronzes from the Kingdom of Benin, in present-day Nigeria, in 1897.
Following auctions, some of the bronzes ended up in museums
and private collections across Europe.
They hold deep cultural significance, and there is growing
international pressure to give them back.
Berlin's Ethnologisches Museum holds more than 500 artefacts
from the Kingdom of Benin, most of them bronzes.
"We want to contribute to understanding and
reconciliation with the descendants of those whose cultural treasures were
stolen during colonisation," German Culture Minister Monika Gruetters said
on Thursday, adding that the first returns were expected to take place in 2022.
Scotland's University of Aberdeen said last month it would
repatriate a Benin bronze whose acquisition in 1957 at an auction it called
"extremely immoral".
Last year, France approved the restitution of its collection
of pillaged Benin Bronzes.
Hundreds of pieces are still held in the British Museum and
several museums in the United States.
There are plans to house the returned artefacts in the
forthcoming Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA). The project is a joint
effort between the Nigeria-based Legacy Restoration Trust, the British Museum
and architecture firm Adjaye Associates.
The Benin Bronzes - thousands of brass, bronze and ivory
sculptures and carvings - have become highly charged symbols of colonialism and
.
More than 900 of these artefacts are housed in the British
Museum, which has come under increasing pressure to return them in the wake of
last year's Black Lives Matter protests.
The British Museum has told the BBC that it is
"committed to facilitating a permanent display of Benin material" in
Edo, but has not specified how many items would be returned, adding "the
selection of objects will be determined through discussion with our Nigerian
colleagues".
Historians say Benin City, formerly known as Edo, boasted
earthen walls longer than the Great Wall of China.
It was also said to be one of the first cities with a form
of street lighting.
British troops razed the whole city to the ground in 1897 to
avenge the killing of an earlier force.